Police arrest second suspect in Palmetto Bank robbery

Bluffton Police accompanied by an FBI agent have arrested Justin A. Williams, the second suspect in the recent Palmetto State Bank armed robbery.

“We picked him up this morning at his house located at 50 Goethe Road,” Sgt. Joe Babkiewicz, lead investigator, said this afternoon.

Williams, 24, was taken into custody on felony charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, said Sgt. Joe Babkiewicz, lead investigator.

His alleged accomplice, David Everett Mack Jr., 24, of 52 Wharf St., was arrested Friday on the same charges by police inCanton,Ohio, where Bluffton police said he had fled. He is awaiting extradition, Babkiewicz said.

The arrests are in connection with the Jan. 19 armed robbery of Palmetto State Bank, 194 Bluffton Road, in Old Town Bluffton.

Police Chief David McAllister has said that at about 7:10 a.m. Jan. 19, two men in dark clothing accosted bank President Montague Laffitte when he arrived at the bank to park his car behind it. While he was threatened with a BB gun, they forced him to take them in his car to the front of the bank on Bluffton Road and then to let them in the bank.

They bound Laffitte with duct tape and ransacked the bank looking for money. They then released him to try to get him to open a safe, which he was unable to do. When another bank employee arrived, they fled on foot with about $115, McAllister said.

Williams was arrested at 11:20 a.m. today and booked in the Beaufort County Detention Center at 12:10 p.m. today, according to the jail log.

““We do have some evidence as well as some witness statements that link Mr. Williams to the crime. I can’t go into detail on evidence now,” Babkiewicz said.

“The FBI’s been working with us the entire time,” he added. “They’re going to have their charges as well. They already have federal charges against Mack.”

The investigation is continuing and will now focus on additional persons who may have helped with the planning or aided the suspects in alluding capture, Babkiewicz said.